True Grit
|narrator = Elizabeth Marvel |starring = Jeff Bridges Matt Damon Josh Brolin Barry Pepper Hailee Steinfeld |music = Carter Burwell |cinematography = Roger Deakins |editing = Roderick Jaynes |studio = Skydance Productions Scott Rudin Productions Mike Zoss Productions |distributor = Paramount Pictures |released = |runtime = 110 minutes |country = |language = English |budget = $38 million |gross = $248,000,494 }} 'True Grit' is a 2010 American Western film written and directed by the Coen brothers. It is the second adaptation of Charles Portis' 1968 novel of the same name, which was previously adapted for film in 1969 starring John Wayne. The film stars Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross, and Jeff Bridges as U.S. Marshal Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn along with Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, and Barry Pepper. Filming began in March 2010, and the film was officially released on December 22, 2010, in the US, after advance screenings earlier that month.Washington, DC, Film Society website. The film opened the 61st Berlin International Film Festival on February 10, 2011. It was nominated for ten Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor (Bridges), Best Supporting Actress (Steinfeld), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing. Plot The film is narrated by the adult Mattie Ross (Elizabeth Marvel), who explains that her father was murdered by one of his hired hands, Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), when she was 14. Chaney made off with her father's horse and his two California gold pieces. While collecting her father's body, the 14-year old Mattie (Hailee Steinfeld) inquires about hiring a Deputy U.S. Marshal to track down Chaney. The Sheriff gives three recommendations, but she chooses to hire Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) because he is described as having true grit which is what Mattie wants. He repeatedly rebuffs her attempts to talk with him. The next day, she attempts to hire Cogburn offering him $50 after reminding him of the government's payments. He doesn't believe she has it and refuses. Meanwhile, Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) arrives on the trail of Chaney. He has been pursuing him for several months for the murder of a state Senator in Texas. After meeting Mattie, he proposes that they should team up with Cogburn, since he knows the Choctaw terrain where Chaney is hiding, while LaBoeuf knows how the man is most likely to behave, but she refuses. After finally securing Cogburn's services for $100, Mattie is instructed to meet him the following morning to begin the search for Chaney since she insists on going. Instead of meeting Mattie, Cogburn leaves a note and a train ticket telling her to go home while he goes to apprehend Chaney. After she is refused passage on the river ferry that conveyed Cogburn and LaBoeuf, Mattie rides into the water and is pulled across by her swimming horse and Cogburn reluctantly allows her to come. The next day, she learns Cogburn and Laboeuf have agreed to split the Texas reward on Chaney and accuses him of fraud. After a dispute, Cogburn ends his and Laboeuf's deal and he leaves. Later, while in pursuit of the "Lucky" Ned Pepper gang with whom Chaney is supposedly with, they meet a doctor who instructs them to a cabin for shelter. Two outlaws, Quincey (Paul Rae) and Moon (Domhnall Gleeson) are staying there, one of whom Cogburn knows to be a friend of "Lucky" Ned Pepper. As he questions them, Moon is fatally stabbed by Quincey whom Cogburn kills. Before he dies, Moon explains that "Lucky" Ned Pepper and his gang were planning on returning to the shack later that night. Cogburn and Mattie lie in wait for the gang. LaBoeuf rides up to the shack ahead of the gang, but they arrive before he can be warned. Cogburn kills two members of the gang, as well as Pepper's horse, but accidentally wounds LaBoeuf. During the night and the next day, Cogburn drinks a great deal of whiskey. He and LaBoeuf argue again, and LaBoeuf departs once more after he and Mattie show respect for each others persona. The next morning, Mattie encounters Chaney at the river. She draws her father's pistol and shoots him when he tries to take her with him, but he survives. The pistol misfires as she tries to finish him off, and he drags her back to Pepper who uses her to make Cogburn leave. Being short a horse, Pepper leaves her with Chaney. As he respects Mattie, Pepper orders Chaney not to harm her and to take her to safety after his remount arrives. Once alone, Chaney disobeys Ned and tries to kill her. LaBoeuf appears and knocks Chaney out explaining that when he heard the shots, he rode back and he and Cogburn devised a plan. They watch as Cogburn takes on the remaining members of Ned's gang. After the gun battle, Ned is mortally wounded and the other members of his gang are either dead or fleeing. Cogburn's horse is dead also. Before Pepper can kill Cogburn, LaBoeuf shoots Ned through the heart and kills him from four hundred yards away, impressing Mattie with his skill as a marksman. Chaney comes to and attacks Laboeuf, and Mattie shoots Chaney in the chest and knocks him over cliff, killing him. The recoil however knocks her back into a pit. When she unwittingly disturbs a ball of rattlesnakes, she calls for help. Cogburn arrives, but she is bitten before he can get to her. Laboeuf has survived and Cogburn promises to send him help before leaving with Mattie. Cogburn rides day and night to get Mattie to a doctor, carrying her after he has to kill Mattie's exhausted horse. Twenty-five years later, Mattie – now 40 and with only one arm, the result of an amputation necessitated by gangrene from the snakebite – receives a note from Cogburn with a flyer enclosed inviting her to meet him at a traveling Wild West show with which he is performing when it stops in Memphis. When she arrives at the site, she learns that Cogburn died three days earlier. She has his body moved into her family farm plot, and the film ends with her standing over his grave and pondering how people talk about that, how she has never married, and how time catches up with everyone. She also states that she never heard from LaBoeuf again and that if he was still alive she would be pleased to. Cast * Jeff Bridges as U.S. Marshal Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn * Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross * Matt Damon as Texas Ranger LaBoeuf * Josh Brolin as Tom Chaney * Barry Pepper as "Lucky" Ned Pepper * Domhnall Gleeson as Moon (The Kid) * Ed Lee Corbin as Bear Man (Dr. Forrester) * Roy Lee Jones as Yarnell Poindexter * Paul Rae as Emmett Quincy * Nicholas Sadler as Sullivan * Bruce Green as Harold Parmalee * Joe Stevens as Lawyer Goudy * Dakin Matthews as Colonel Stonehill * Elizabeth Marvel as 40-year-old Mattie * Leon Russom as Sheriff * Jake Walker as Judge Isaac Parker * Peter Leung as Mr. Lee * Don Pirl as Cole Younger * Jarlath Conroy as The Undertaker * J. K. Simmons as Lawyer Daggett (voice only) Adaptation and production The project was rumored as far back as February 2008; however it was not confirmed until March 2009. Ahead of shooting, Ethan Coen said that the film would be a more faithful adaptation of the novel than the 1969 version. }} Mattie Ross "is a pill," said Ethan Coen in a December 2010 interview, "but there is something deeply admirable about her in the book that we were drawn to," including the Presbyterian-Protestant ethic so strongly imbued in a 14-year-old girl. Joel Coen said that the brothers did not want to "mess around with what we thought was a very compelling story and character". The film's producer, Scott Rudin said that the Coens had taken a "formal, reverent approach" to the Western genre, with its emphasis on adventure and quest. "The patois of the characters, the love of language that permeates the whole film, makes it very much of a piece with their other films, but it is the least ironic in many regards". Open casting sessions were held in Texas in November 2009 for the role of Mattie Ross. The following month, Paramount Pictures announced a casting search for a 12- to 16-year-old girl, describing the character as a "simple, tough as nails young woman" whose "unusually steely nerves and straightforward manner are often surprising". Steinfeld, then age 13, was selected for the role from a pool of 15,000 applicants. “It was, as you can probably imagine, the source of a lot of anxiety,” Ethan Coen told ''The New York Times. "We were aware if the kid doesn't work, there's no movie". The film was shot in the Santa Fe, New Mexico area in March and April 2010, as well as in Granger and Austin, Texas. The first trailer was released in September; a second trailer premiered with The Social Network. True Grit is the first Coen brothers film to receive a PG-13 rating since 2003's Intolerable Cruelty for "some intense sequences of western violence including disturbing images." For the final segment of the film, a one-armed body double was needed for Elizabeth Marvel (who played the adult Mattie). After a nationwide call, the Coen brothers cast Ruth Morris – a 29-year-old social worker and student who was born without a left forearm.Ward, Alyson. "Chance led Ruth Morris to 'True Grit,' but her role isn't a new one." Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Tuesday December 21, 2010. Morris has more screen time in the film than Marvel.Ackerman, Todd. "Social worker shows true grit in movie role." (Mobile story) Houston Chronicle. February 27, 2011. Retrieved on February 27, 2011. Soundtrack Release Box office In the holiday weekend following its December 22 North American debut, True Grit took in $25.6 million at the box office, twice its pre-release projections. By its second weekend ending January 2, the film had earned $87.1 million domestically, becoming the Coen brothers' highest grossing film, surpassing No Country for Old Men, which earned $74.3 million. True Grit was the only mainstream movie of the 2010 holiday season to exceed the revenue expectations of its producers. Based on that performance, the Los Angeles Times predicted that the film would likely become the second-highest grossing western of all time when inflation is discounted, exceeded only by Dances With Wolves. During its third weekend of release, True Grit reached the No. 1 spot at the box office, displacing Little Fockers, which had held the No. 1 spot for the two previous weeks. True Grit took in an additional $15 million in what is usually a slow month for movie attendance, reaching $110 million. Both the brothers and Paramount Vice Chairman Rob Moore attributed the film's success partly to its "soft" PG-13 rating, atypical for a Coen brothers film, which helped broaden audience appeal. Paramount anticipated that the film would be popular with the adults who often constitute the Coen brothers' core audience, as well as fans of the Western genre. But True Grit also drew extended families: parents, grandparents, and teenagers. Geographically, the film played strongest in Los Angeles and New York, but its top 20 markets also included Oklahoma City; Plano, Texas, and Olathe, Kansas. Home Media Paramount announced that the film will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on June 7, 2011. It will be released in a Blu-ray/DVD Combo pack as well as a standard DVD edition. Reception The film received critical acclaim; Rotten Tomatoes reported that 96% of critics gave the film a positive review based on 235 reviews, with only 10 negative reviews and an average score of 8.3/10, with its consensus stating: "Girded by strong performances from Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld, and lifted by some of the Coens' most finely tuned, unaffected work, True Grit is a worthy companion to the Charles Portis book." Metacritic gave the film an average score of 80/100 based on 40 reviews from mainstream critics, indicating "generally positive reviews". Total Film gave the film a five-star review (denoting 'outstanding'): "This isn’t so much a remake as a masterly re-creation. Not only does it have the drop on the 1969 version, it’s the first great movie of 2011". Roger Ebert awarded 3.5 stars out of 4, writing, "What strikes me is that I'm describing the story and the film as if it were simply, if admirably, a good Western. That's a surprise to me, because this is a film by the Coen Brothers, and this is the first straight genre exercise in their career. It's a loving one. Their craftsmanship is a wonder", and also remarking, "The cinematography by Roger Deakins reminds us of the glory that was, and can still be, the Western." Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, writing, "The Coens, not known for softening anything, have restored the original's bleak, elegiac conclusion and as writer-directors have come up with a version that shares events with the first film but is much closer in tone to the book... Clearly recognizing a kindred spirit in Portis, sharing his love for eccentric characters and odd language, they worked hard, and successfully, at serving the buoyant novel as well as being true to their own black comic brio." In his review for the Minneapolis Star Tribune Colin Covert wrote: "the Coens dial down the eccentricity and deliver their first classically made, audience-pleasing genre picture. The results are masterful." Rex Reed of The New York Observer criticized the film's pacing, referring to plot points as "mere distractions ... to divert attention from the fact that nothing is going on elsewhere". Reed considers Damon "hopelessly miscast" and finds Bridges' performance mumbly, lumbering, and self-indulgent. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops review called the film "exceptionally fine" and said "amid its archetypical characters, mythic atmosphere and amusingly idiosyncratic dialogue, writer-directors Joel and Ethan Coen's captivating drama uses its heroine's sensitive perspective – as well as a fair number of biblical and religious references – to reflect seriously on the violent undertow of frontier life."[http://www.usccb.org/movies/t/true-grit.shtml True Grit review at Catholic News Service – Media Review Office] Awards The film won the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Young Performer (Hailee Steinfeld) and received ten additional nominations in the following categories: Best Film, Best Actor (Jeff Bridges), Best Supporting Actress (Steinfeld), Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup, and Best Score. The ceremony took place on January 14, 2011. It was nominated for two Screen Actors Guild Awards: Best Actor in a Leading Role (Bridges) and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Steinfeld). The ceremony took place on January 30, 2011. It was nominated for eight British Academy Film Awards: Best Film, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Bridges), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Steinfeld), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design. Roger Deakins won the award for Best Cinematography. It was nominated for ten Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor (Bridges), Best Supporting Actress (Steinfeld), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing. When told of all the nominations, the Coen brothers stated "Ten seems like an awful lot. We don't want to take anyone else's."French, Doug (2011-02-08) [http://mises.org/daily/5021/True-Grit-and-True-Commerce True Grit and True Commerce], Mises Institute The film did not win any Academy Awards. References External links * * Category:2010s drama films Category:2010s Western films Category:American drama films Category:American Western films Category:English-language films Category:Films based on Western novels Category:Films directed by the Coen brothers Category:Films produced by Steven Spielberg Category:Films shot in New Mexico Category:Films shot in Texas Category:Paramount films 2010 Category:Article Feedback Additional Articles Category:Films set in Arkansas Category:Films set in Oklahoma Category:Films set in the 1870s Category:Films set in 1903 ca:True Grit (pel·lícula de 2010) cs:Opravdová kuráž da:True Grit de:True Grit (2010) et:Tõeline visadus es:True Grit (película de 2010) fa:بی‌باک (فیلم ۲۰۱۰) fr:True Grit (film, 2010) is:True Grit it:Il Grinta (film 2010) he:אומץ אמיתי lb:True Grit (Film 2010) hu:A félszemű nl:True Grit (2010) ja:トゥルー・グリット no:True Grit – et ekte mannfolk pl:Prawdziwe męstwo (film 2010) pt:True Grit (2010) ru:Железная хватка sk:Skutočná guráž fi:Kova kuin kivi (vuoden 2010 elokuva) sv:True Grit uk:Справжня мужність